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Interview with Phil Kieran

Phil Kieran

I don’t really want to mention the BeDJ party in Warsaw’s Lokomotyva, because there was no pleasure to freeze at the door for an hour, then to look for a place for a jacket (cloakroom was full), neither to dance among all the [...] of this world. The pleasure was to talk to Phil Kieran, what you can check out below.

Sound Revolt: Did you like the party?
Phil Kieran: Yes, loved it! But what was that guy who felt through the roof? Did you see that earlier?

Sound Revolt: No! Tonight?
Phil Kieran: Yes, he was trying to get in free, so he walked on the roof and then just felt through.

Sound Revolt: I can tell you this happens usually here. The tickets were sold out so there was no other way to get in. I know that sounds weird, but this is not a kind of club, where lots of usual people go to. This is one for the masses.
Phil Kieran: Oh, I understand now.

Sound Revolt: I’ve searched the Internet for any information about you and I haven’t found any.
Phil Kieran: Really? With Google? There’s loads of stuff. Loads of stuff like discogs and gigs...

Sound Revolt: Yes, discogs and gigs - true, but how about you?
Phil Kieran: I don’t really bother. I don’t have a website or anything. I always focus on my records and what people think of them. I spend my time in the studio; I make music and dj... I don’t sit and try to set everything up like a business. For me it’s like, when you make good music and try to dj well, that should do the hard work. I’m not a business person. I like music, not business.

Sound Revolt: So you real name is...
Phil Kieran: Phil Kieran. Why would I make up the shit dj name like Phil Kieran? That’s the name my mom gave me. (laughs).

Sound Revolt: But you do use some nicknames.
Phil Kieran: I came up with some pseudonyms before. I do stuff under the names: Plastic Pervert, Pill Hearin’ for Electrix. I’ve done a couple other things under Housebreaker on Oblong, Bushwacka!’s label. But most of the stuff I do is under my own name, which my mom gave me.

Sound Revolt: How did you make up the nick Plastic Pervert?
Phil Kieran: How? I am a pervert!

Sound Revolt: And you make some breaky stuff under that pseudonym.
Phil Kieran: Yes, life’s too short so I wanna live my life and make music that I love. I just do everything that satisfies my soul, my desire to make music.

Sound Revolt: What’s the story behind the track called “I Love You”? Did you want to confess love to someone?
Phil Kieran: No, I just wanted to make a record which would sound good in a club. I remember, I worked on it for like 3-4 days and it was just shit. I went then in a very angry mood so I came back and finished the track in two hours. I just made it very simple, just one loop and the bass. And a sample of Yello.
There’s one important thing about the release which is a double pack. There’s the original and Adam Beyer’s dub on the first vinyl and on the other one remixes are labeled the wrong way. Twice tonight I heard people say “I prefer the Adam Beyer remix”. And Pete Tong plays the Adam Beyer remix, djs play the Adam Beyer remix... Mine is a slapping harder one, simply hammers, and the Adam Beyer one is a lot more musical.

Sound Revolt: How about your name on the label? It is spelled Kieren...
Phil Kieran: My name was spelled wrong as well. You know, that’s a brilliant label but I was pissed off anyway.
Do you know Agoria remix I’ve done? That was labeled the wrong way too. Mine is a harder one.

Sound Revolt: I know which one is yours as I heard it on Essential Mix. But it looks like you are not very lucky with record labels?
Phil Kieran: Yes, my whole life’s like this, everything...

Sound Revolt: How about “Youth” released under Soma?
Phil Kieran: That’s one of my favorite things I’ve done.

Sound Revolt: That’s it? So what are you working on right now?
Phil Kieran: I’m working on some musical stuff at the moment, a kind of techno which doesn’t sound like anything else. Maybe people will like it. I don’t know... Fingers crossed.
I’ve made a lot of club tracks, but I’m not going to release them. I don’t want to do that thing that so many producers do. They just put loads of records, where one of ten is good and the other nine are shit. I want to put the one which is good.

Sound Revolt: But you do a lot of different things...
Phil Kieran: Yes, I make breaks and I make electro... it’s all different.

Sound Revolt: But tonight you decided to play techno.
Phil Kieran: Yes... I never play what I don’t want to play. I always spin records I love but adjusted to the room. And tonight, that was a riff because that’s what they wanted. I tried to play as hard as I could.

Sound Revolt: How about the track called “The Bomb”? This was previously released under German label. Why did you decide to re-release the track?
Phil Kieran: Yes, years ago it was released on TT500, but now it’s re-released on Skint. You know, that’s the first techno track I ever made, it’s very old. It sounds older than the stuff I do now, but maybe I wanted to bring it up once more. I don’t know.

Sound Revolt: So what kinds of music do you listen at home?
Phil Kieran: To be honest, when I’m not making music I listen to a lot of like jazz, or like kind of experimental guitar things, very melodic, rich things. Anything from Radiohead to Square Pressure. Or else, my girlfriend just listens to Dolly Parton (laughs). You know, it’s good to listen to lots of different music. It’s the only way to push dance music forward.

Sound Revolt: You remixed and played “La 11-eme Marche” from Agoria. Don’t you think this is the track of the year?
Phil Kieran: I still love it. No other record has done that. It’s not happy, it’s not sad, it’s just like understanding of your emotions. Just the chords which transmit some feelings in your head, that you can’t explain. There’s no other record which does that.

Sound Revolt: Was it hard to do a remix?
Phil Kieran: I didn’t want to remix too much. All I did was to change the arrangement and make it slightly faster and tougher. I wanted to make it more suitable for other djs. So Slam, Billy Nasty or even Mauro Picotto were playing it.

Sound Revolt: Thanks for the interview, Phil.
Phil Kieran: I thank you too.


The End

Author: Sebastian Napora
Photos by: web
Date: 11th November 2003
Place: Warsaw, Poland

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